# Baumslag–Solitar group

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One sheet of the Cayley graph of the Baumslag–Solitar group BS(1, 2). Red edges correspond to a and blue edges correspond to b.
The sheets of the Cayley graph of the Baumslag-Solitar group BS(1, 2) fit together into an infinite binary tree.

In the mathematical field of group theory, the Baumslag–Solitar groups are examples of two-generator one-relator groups that play an important role in combinatorial group theory and geometric group theory as (counter)examples and test-cases. They are given by the group presentation

${\displaystyle \left\langle a,b\ :\ ba^{m}b^{-1}=a^{n}\right\rangle .}$

For each integer m and n, the Baumslag–Solitar group is denoted BS(m, n). The relation in the presentation is called the Baumslag–Solitar relation.

Some of the various BS(m, n) are well-known groups. BS(1, 1) is the free abelian group on two generators, and BS(1, −1) is the fundamental group of the Klein bottle.

The groups were defined by Gilbert Baumslag and Donald Solitar in 1962 to provide examples of non-Hopfian groups. The groups contain residually finite groups, Hopfian groups that are not residually finite, and non-Hopfian groups.

## Linear representation

Define

${\displaystyle A={\begin{pmatrix}1&1\\0&1\end{pmatrix}},\qquad B={\begin{pmatrix}{\frac {n}{m}}&0\\0&1\end{pmatrix}}.}$

The matrix group G generated by A and B is a homomorphic image of BS(m, n), via the homomorphism induced by

${\displaystyle a\mapsto A,\qquad b\mapsto B.}$

It is worth noting that this will not, in general, be an isomorphism. For instance if BS(m, n) is not residually finite (i.e. if it is not the case that |m| = 1, |n| = 1, or |m| = |n|[1]) it cannot be isomorphic to a finitely generated linear group, which is known to be residually finite by a theorem of Mal'cev.[2]

## Notes

1. See Nonresidually Finite One-Relator Groups by Stephen Meskin for a proof of the residual finiteness condition
2. Anatoliĭ Ivanovich Mal'cev, "On the faithful representation of infinite groups by matrices" Transl. Amer. Math. Soc. (2), 45 (1965), pp. 1–18

## References

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